At the end of his book, Pierre D'Ieteren
claimed that the cars of him and his mother are "twins"; this statement, which has generated a lot of
misunderstanding, is not exactly true...

From many points of view, Gabrielle D'Ieteren’s car is the most interesting
since it was the one more thoroughly modified .

This car was relly made for competition, set
up accurately by adopting the most suitable solutions to guarantee reliability and
performance. Especially reliability has been pursued in preparation, taking
into account that, by their own admission, the mechanical knowledge of the team were limited to routine maintenance.

In
fact, the car has completed the grueling test without any serious mechanical
problems; considering the level of reliability of the production cars of the
time,this confirms that the car has been
significantly improved. The experience
gained during the Second World War and the immediate post-war competition
offered all the information necessary to achieve the purpose.

The basic car was a 1951 saloon model with
sunroof, whose documented changes are listed below.

CHANGES CONFIRMED BY M.me D'IETEREN IN HER BOOK

Color: sand. The car was completely
repainted for the competition, to better
to blend in with the environment Sahara.

Ground clearance increased to 31 cm, with
installation of bus reduction boxes and modification of the front axle.

Two spare wheels in the front bonnet (fig. 1).

Two aluminum ladders attached to the
outside.

Chains for muddy roads.

Two metal canisters secured to the outside
(one for water and one for the fuel)

Two flags posts mounted on the left and
right front fenders.

Kit to turn back the front seats.

Electric fan.

Additional mechanical windshield wiper (fig. 2).

Dual battery, mounted in series

Additional Fuel tank mounted in place of the
rear seat. Excellent solution to lower the center of gravity and make neutral
weight changes related to consumption of fuel (fig. 3).

MODIFICATIONS THAT COULD BE OBSERVED FROM
PICTURES

External fuel filler neck for the additional tank in the
left rear quarter panel (fig 4).

Radio antenna installed in the right front quarter
quarter.

Fenders width increased.

Enlarged running board.

Pop-out rear windows (we will discuss in
details about this accessory later).

Outside rearview mirror (installed due to
lack of rear visibility due to luggages).

Shovel mounted on the roof (fig. 5).

Reading the list of the documented modifications
one wonders if they were sufficient to ensure the performance and reliability that
the car offered during the grueling raid; I personally believe that the car was
modified more than declared, but in the absence of documentation, we can only
make assumptions.

Talking about the available documentation on
this car, it is somehow "curious", especially taking into account the
accurate preparation of the car, the fact that the crew had no any camera to
document the raid. Difficult to believe, but it seems that the crew of the car nr.
18 did not take any pictures during the trip: the few available photos of the
car involved in the race were made by crews competitors.

The photos in the book "Deux femmes au
volant" are mostly archival footage or images taken by Pierre d'Ieteren in
his African raid, like the cover or the one that documents the tole ondule
(both exist in the original book Pierre d'Ieteren "Images du
souvenir").

The car on the cover of the book "Deux
femmes au volant" is not the one of
M.me D’Ieteren but the one of her son (the picture is reversed and the plate number
is rewritten as confirmed by the position of the steering wheel. Other
significant details to identify the car are the followings: no additional
filler fuel neckon the rear quarter panel, absence of luggages in the rear of the car and
single flag positioned on the roof at the center of the windscreen).

In fact, there are very few pictures
available of the car used by M.me D'Ieteren, and I do not know anything about
it sincer his departure by ship to
Europe at the end of the Mediterranee - Le Cap raid. As long as I know, the only vehicles presented
during the tour in Wolfsburg and exhibited at the 1951 Frankfurt Motor Show and
during the dealers tour in Germany and Belgium between 1951 and 1952 were those
used by Pierre D'Ieteren.

The Standard is the poor brother of the Beetle that we all know, the Export model.Its history and evolution had developed independently and discreetly, leaving little trace in the literature in the past.Also the literature of today offers very few information on it, and when it does is often superficial, incomplete, if not simply wrong.

But Standard is not only the poor variant of the beetle, it is also an attitude, a way of seeing things, paying attention to everything, by its nature, goes unnoticed because it is not trendy, not glamor, and is not cause of admiration, emulation, desire.